One of the major areas covered by ICSANT is international cooperation, in particular, in preventing, detecting, suppressing and investigating offences involving radioactive material as set forth in Article 2 of the Convention. This cooperation can take many forms, starting from preventive measures, to extradition, mutual legal assistance, information exchange, to so-called “post-crisis” situations, including cooperation on nuclear forensics.
On 5 July 2024, UNODC’s CBRN Terrorism Prevention Programme hosted the third event of its webinar series on ICSANT, which is part of a project funded by the European Union. The event focused on nuclear forensics and its role under ICSANT and featured Dr. Andrei I. Apostol, who is a Director of Nuclear Fuel Cycle and Non-Proliferation at RoPower Nuclear and a judicial expert in Romania. Nearly 70 participants attended the webinar.
In his presentation, Dr. Apostol emphasized differences in implementation of nuclear forensics by countries with diverse legal systems, in particular, belonging to common and civil law traditions. He also referred to Nuclear Security Series No. 15 by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on “Nuclear security recommendations on nuclear and other radioactive material out of regulatory control” – a publication jointly sponsored by UNODC and several other international organizations. The expert underlined that nuclear forensics, as a component of forensics science at the national level, need to be implemented in strict accordance with the State’s criminal law.
Dr. Apostol also discussed the role of nuclear forensics in strengthening national nuclear security response capabilities and emphasized, among others, the crucial role of inter-agency cooperation at the national level, as well as cooperation with international partners. For example, under ICSANT, a State that has seized radioactive material that was an object of an offence covered by the Convention will need to characterize the material, interpret this information, as well as reconstruct the history of the material through nuclear forensics analysis. This information would feed into the investigation and help the country to return the material to the State party it belongs to. Dr. Apostol mentioned that, should the first State party not have sufficient capacity to perform these tasks, ICSANT offers an opportunity for it to request the assistance and cooperation of other States parties or international organizations, including the IAEA.
